Quinoa and Black Bean Salad: Courtesy of Sugar Betty (originally posted February 19, 2014)

Today I’m making some of my favorite recipes. First, I’m making a recipe from another cooking goddess friend of mine (I seem to know a lot of these amazing women…):
Quinoa and Black Bean Salad (original post here: http://sugarbetty.blogspot.com/2011/09/quinoa-and-black-bean-salad.html).

This recipe was my first introduction to Quinoa, which I now truly love and try to cook with frequently. This recipe is easy, healthy, delicious, and makes a perfect lunch, side for dinner, or, light dinner. We’ve eaten it in this house for all three.

Here’s the recipe:

Quinoa and Black Bean Salad:

Ingredients-
1 1/2 cups quinoa
1 1/2 cups cooked black beans, rinsed if canned (one 15 oz. can)
1 1/2 tablespoons red-wine vinegar
1 1/2 cups frozen corn (no need to thaw or cook)
1 red bell pepper, finely chopped
1/2 cup scallions, thinly sliced (about 6 scallions; white and green parts)
1 jalapeno chile, seeded and minced
1/2 - 1 cup finely chopped cilantro

For Dressing:
5 tablespoons fresh lime juice (juice from 3 limes)
2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/4 teaspoons ground cumin
1/3 cup olive oil


Directions-
Bring 3 cups water to a boil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Rinse quinoa well under cold running water. Add 1 teaspoon salt and quinoa to water and return to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer until all liquid is absorbed about 12-15 minutes. Transfer to colander to drain and cool slightly.

Meanwhile, combine remaining salad ingredients in a large bowl. In a small bowl mix the lime juice, vinegar, kosher salt and cumin. Whisk in olive oil until emulsified.

Add quinoa to the salad ingredients in the large bowl and toss everything with the lime dressing. Taste and salt and pepper as needed. Serve warm, cold or at room temperature.

***Notes:
-This may be made 1 day ahead and chilled, covered. Bring salad to room temperature and toss a few times before serving.
-I have made the quinoa in our rice cooker, as well, to save myself a little effort, and it’s worked well for me. We take our rice cookers very seriously in this house, as my husband lived in Japan for a couple years, and I lived in China, so we have the Mercedes Benz of rice cookers. It was worth every penny, in my opinion. But, I’m sure the quinoa would cook just fine in most other rice cookers, too.
If you’re interested, this is the model we use and we LOVE it and use it multiple times a week. We had our last one for over 10 years (using it heavily) and only upgraded to this one so we could cook more at a time.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0074CDG6C/ref=wms_ohs_product?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It has a variety of cooking functions including white rice/sushi, mixed rice, porridge, sweet, brown, cake, steam, and quick cooking. Did you catch that? This thing can make CAKE. Ridiculous. We love it.

Happy cooking! (And eating)